New Zealanders Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Armstrong all showed good pace in opening practice for this weekend’s IndyCar outing at the Milwaukee Mile.
Dixon was the second fastest overall in the two-hour session, with his best effort of 23.1149 seconds coming on his 29th of 56 attempts.
McLaughlin completed 55 laps, with his best effort of 23.1881 seconds coming on his fourth tour, which placed him fifth.
Armstrong was one place further behind, in sixth, after his 23.2523-second flyer on his 34th of 63 laps.
The Chip Ganassi #11 does, however, face a nine-place grid penalty in the opening race for an unapproved engine change following the last round in Portland.
Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who has won 10 of the last 15 circle-track races in the series, set the benchmark for the day at 23.0156 seconds, one-tenth faster than Dixon.
“I think you definitely have your hands full midway through to the end of the (tyre) stint,” Newgarden said.
“I liked our car a lot. It was tricky in the beginning. We had two different tires we were working with. The low-line running had like one balance by itself, and then it completely flipped when we went to this weekend’s tyre.
“There was some tuning that went on there. I felt like we got into a good spot. The PPG car was really comfy at the end. Everyone is going to make their own decisions on how they view the tyre usage and the mileage. It’s been really interesting the last couple of ovals on how people have strategised it.”
Series leader Alex Palou, who leads Will Power by 54 points, was ninth quickest, nearly three-tenths off the Indy 500 winner.
The first practice at Milwaukee, which returns to the calendar for the first time since 2015, was divided into two groups of 15 minutes each to work in the lower groove before the circuit opened to all cars for 90 minutes.
Proceedings were incident-free until the final eight minutes when Christian Rasmussen crashed at Turn 2. He was unhurt.
Qualifying for both races of this weekend’s double-header begins at 6.15 am NZST on Sunday, before the opening 250-lap race at 9.40 am.
Race 2’s coverage begins at 6.30 am NZST on Sky Sport.
Nine drivers, including Dixon and McLaughlin, remain in mathematical contention for the title but must finish the weekend no more than 54 points behind Palou.
Header Image: Penske Entertainment: Chris Jones
